1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to security systems and methods and more specifically to systems and methods for providing an alert when an article or asset is tampered with.
2. Description of the Related Art
Each year, millions of articles are shipped in containers around the world via land, sea, and air transport modes. A container's time of arrival and time of departure at ports, customs, freight forwarders, and truckers, are typically tracked as the container progresses from its origin to its final destination. The tracking systems may include multiple, disparate systems, or a coordinated system as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/415,416, filed Mar. 8, 2012, and titled “Associative Tracking for Loosely-Coupled Supply Chain Networks”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Tracking the progress of a container does not necessarily ensure that the article itself has not been damaged, corrupted, infiltrated, tampered with, or replaced, prior to arriving at its final destination. The ability to continuously monitor the physical condition of an article or shipping container is as important as tracking its location. This is especially important if the article being shipped contains special nuclear material, which could potentially be used by a terrorist group to construct an improvised explosive device or a dirty bomb.
Leakage of any material (liquid, gas or solid) from a shipping container is also a concern if the material is corrosive, caustic, radioactive or otherwise harmful to the surrounding environment or public. Monitoring the leakage of a material, especially a hazardous material, from a container can help prevent an uncontrolled spill and the associated environmental damage and cleanup expense.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,274,289, titled “System and Device for Detecting Object Tampering”, describes a pattern of individual, insulated conductors that detects tampering by a change in continuity of a single conductor that is discovered by a sensor, which then communicates the event via a signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,646,299, titled “Anti-Tampering Security Material”, describes a woven cloth having a fused conductor and accelerometer that detects tampering by a change in voltage and acceleration discovered by a sensor that communicates the event via a signal.
Electromagnetic interference or “EMI” comes from electronic devices and may be harmful to sensitive equipment and humans. A flexible substrate coated with a metallized coating, and manufactured by Swift Textile Metalizing, LLC of Bloomfield, Conn., U.S.A. 06002, protects sensitive equipment from the dangerous effects of EMI.
Despite the teachings provided by the prior art, further improvements to monitoring the physical condition of assets, items, articles, packages, and containers, and alerting personnel of a tampering condition are necessary.